Department for Communities and Local Government

Coalfields Regeneration Trust

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much funding has been awarded to the Coalfields Regeneration Trust in each year since 2010.

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if his Department will make an assessment of the implications for its policies of the conclusions and recommendations of the recent report from the Coalfields Regeneration Trust entitled The State of the Coalfields; and whether his Department provides or plans to provide funding for the Coalfields Regeneration Trust.

Penny Mordaunt: In 2010, the previous Administration initiated a review of coalfields regeneration; this was completed in September 2010 and the Government’s response was published in March 2011 – as summarised in the Written Ministerial Statement by my rt. hon. Friend, the Member for Welwyn Hatfield (Grant Shapps), on 10 March 2011, Official Report, Column 74WS. This outlined a four year programme to make the Trust self-financing, and a tapered level of funding. As laid out in that approach, funding to the Trust was £17.7 million in 2010-11, £16 million in 2011-12, £14 million in 2012-13, £12 million in 2013-14 and will be £10 million in 2014-15.   In line with the strategy, the Coalfields Regeneration Trust will no longer receive financial support from DCLG after March 2015, but they have been allowed to invest grant in assets, whilst still adhering to their core objectives of supporting coalfields communities to enable them to generate an income from 2015 onwards. The Trust now has a strong portfolio of investment and an opportunity to concentrate on the areas where they add value.   In addition, the Homes and Communities Agency’s Coalfields Programme has invested over £660 million in coalfields project. The land assets associated with Coalfields Projects are expected to form part of the Homes and Communities Agency’s upcoming programme to dispose of Public Sector Land.   DCLG’s Coalfields Funds have also been investing in innovative small and medium firms in deprived former coalfields areas and will continue to do so until mid-2016, as per the June 2009 contractual agreement with the Coalfields Growth Fund partnership. As of 30 June 2014 the Funds have invested £16.9 million in total.  More broadly, the Government’s approach is to provide local leaders, residents and businesses with the powers, flexibilities, options and incentives to put them in the driving seat to regenerate their area, strengthen their local economy, and improve their opportunities.   As part of its long-term economic plan to secure Britain’s future, the Government has agreed a series of Growth Deals with businesses and local authorities across England which will provide support for local businesses to train young people, create thousands of new jobs, build thousands of new homes and start hundreds of infrastructure projects; including transport improvements and superfast broadband networks. There is a real opportunity for the Local Enterprise Partnerships which cover former coalfield areas to take a major role in taking forward regeneration locally.

Registration of Births, Deaths, Marriages and Civil Partnerships

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps the Government has taken to implement the EU proposal to replace the royal coat of arms with the EU emblem on birth, death and marriage certificates; and if he will make a statement.

Kris Hopkins: The Government has taken no such steps to make any change to UK public documents.The underlying issue stems from a proposed EU regulation (2013/0119) on the use of public documents between EU Member States. The draft can be found at: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2013:0228:FIN:EN:PDFThe UK Government has been absolutely clear that there can be no suggestion of national birth, death or marriage certificates being replaced by EU documents, or of UK emblems being replaced by EU branding on them. Further, the European Commission has stated that there is no EU legal basis to impose any such replacement.Negotiations continue on this draft regulation. Ministers have been clear that the imposition of the EU flag is inappropriate. Indeed, following negotiations initiated by my rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Eric Pickles), the UK Government last year stopped proposals from the European Commission to make it compulsory for many public bodies to fly the EU flag from their public buildings all year round, and in addition, successfully renegotiated EU law to remove the previous requirement (under 2006 EU regulation) to fly the EU flag for one week a year on Europe Day.

Enterprise Zones

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to the report by the National Audit Office, Funding and structures for local economic growth, HC 542, published on 6 December 2013, what steps he has taken to implement recommendation 22f on page 13 of the report.

Penny Mordaunt: As Enterprise Zones are a long term intervention (25 years in total) and the programme is still at an early stage, an evaluation of impact at this point would be premature. This reflects the practice of the previous evaluation which was commissioned in 1995 to assess the performance of Enterprise Zones that had been designated between 1981 and 1984. However, the Department is looking at options now for a robust evaluation in the future, taking into account recent National Audit Office work on evaluation of spatial programmes, and lessons that can be learnt from the evaluations that are underway on other local growth programmes such as the Regional Growth Fund.

Enterprise Zones

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the number of new jobs that will be created by enterprise zones by 2015.

Penny Mordaunt: Enterprise Zones are about delivering long term, locally-led, sustainable growth. Since they started in April 2012, they have laid down the foundations for their success and report that they have so far created over 10,000 jobs and attracted 377 businesses, bringing in £1.9 billion pounds of private sector investment. We do not collect data on forecast job numbers by 2015, nor are we imposing Whitehall targets; the jobs to be created in each individual Enterprise Zone will reflect the type of commerce or industry supported on the sites (some sectors are more labour-intensive than others), the local priorities of the Enterprise Zone, the size and context of the zone’s sites and the broader local economy.

Electronic Government

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what progress the Permanent Secretary of his Department has made on his objective for delivery of information and transactional services to his Department's users by taking the Digital by Default approach.

Kris Hopkins: The Department is digital by default; publishing all documents online, except where there is a statutory duty to publish printed copies and when material is targeted at audiences known to have limited access to the internet, such as park home tenants.Our transactional services are on target to reach 80% digital takeup by 2017.85 percent of planning appeals in the calendar year to June 2014 were completed on line. 100 percent of national infrastructure planning projects in the calendar year to June 2014 were completed on line. 68 percent of planning applications through the planning portal were completed online in the calendar year to March 2014.

Home Office

Immigrants: Detainees

Mr Andrew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, in how many cases detainees were not released automatically as a result of Rule 35 applications because her Department disputed medical evidence; and in how many such cases exceptional grounds were stated, by immigration removal centre, in (a) 2013 and (b) 2014 to date.

James Brokenshire: It is not possible to provide the numbers of detainees subject to a Rule 35 report who were not released from detention due to disputed medical evidence or in how many cases exceptional grounds were stated without examination of individual records at disproportionate cost.

Glyndwr University

Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what additional information she received between March 2014 and 24 June 2014 which led to her suspending the highly trusted status immigration licence owned by the Glyndwr University on the latter date.

James Brokenshire: Between March and June 2014 the Home Office identified a number of issues which led to the suspension of Glyndwr University’s sponsor licence on 24 June. Information was provided from ETS that a significant number of students sponsored by the University had English language test certificates that were invalid due to cheating. A subsequent audit of the University identified a number of further concerns. The University was suspended as a temporary measure to allow the Home Office to conduct further investigations into its ability to fulfil its sponsorship duties .

Glyndwr University

Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what criteria were applied in the decision to grant a renewal of highly trusted status immigration licence to Glyndwr University in March 2014.

James Brokenshire: Glyndwr University’s four year sponsor licence was renewed in February 2013 and their annual Highly Trusted Sponsor (HTS) status was renewed in November 2013. All sponsors applying for HTS status have to meet a number of mandatory, objective requirements. At the point Glyndwr University applied to renew their status this included: having a refusal rate of less than 20 %; an enrolment rate of at least 90 % and a course completion rate of at least 85%. The full criteria for renewing Highly Trusted Sponsor (HTS) status are set out in published guidance at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/340240/Document1_Applying_or_renewing_T4_Licence_and_HTS_01-08-14__final_.pdf

Families

Lucy Powell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Prime Minister's speech of 15 August 2011 calling for a family test to be applied to all domestic policy, which policies of her Department have been so assessed to date.

James Brokenshire: On 18 August 2014 the Prime Minister announced that the family test was being formalised as part of the impact assessment for all domestic policies. From October 2014, every new domestic policy will be examined for its impact on the family.

Ministry of Justice

Prisoners' Release

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners liable to be deported were released from prison on resettlement licence in the latest period for which figures are available.

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of prisoners who were liable for deportation (a) applied for and (b) were refused a resettlement licence in each of the last five years.

Andrew Selous: All foreign national offenders given custodial sentences are referred to the Home Office to consider deportation at the earliest possible opportunity.Our policy seeks to ensure that those who will be removed from the UK are not released temporarily. On 13 August 2014 we amended the Prison Rules so that prisoners who have a Deportation Order served against them and have exhausted their rights of appeal from within the UK can no longer be moved to open conditions and will not be eligible for release on temporary licence (ROTL).The immigration status of the foreign nationals granted temporary release and whether they were liable to be deported is not recorded centrally. Data on temporary release applications and the outcomes of such applications is not collected centrally and could not be provided except at disproportionate cost.

Domestic Visits

Sheila Gilmore: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 19 June 2014, Official Report, column 711W, on official visits, what domestic visits he has made since January 2013; and what the purpose of each such visit was.

Andrew Selous: The Department is not able to provide this information as it would incur disproportionate cost. The Justice Secretary has been on a significant number of domestic visits in the 18 months since January 2013. This would require extensive diary searches and work to compile the information. The Justice Secretary and members of the Ministerial team regularly visit courts, prisons and probation trusts and other organisations relevant to the Ministry of Justice’s business. The purpose of these visits is to meet frontline staff and stakeholders, discuss their work, and to inform the development of policy.

Victim Personal Statement Scheme

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effects on Victim Impact Statements on sentencing decisions made by judges in the criminal justice system.

Mike Penning: The Government implemented a new Victims’ Code in December 2013. One of the code’s key entitlements is for victims to make a Victim Personal Statement (VPS), setting out the consequences of the offence on them. This gives victims a stronger voice in the criminal justice system. We have also made a commitment that next year we will introduce a new law that will set out in statute key entitlements for victims previously set out in the Victims' Code. This will include the right to make a personal statement and ask to read it aloud in court. In the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW), victims are asked a range of questions on the VPS, which includes whether they felt their VPS was taken into account in the criminal justice system. We will look to use this data in monitoring criminal justice agencies’ compliance with their duties on the VPS, as set out in the Victims' Code. The Government has not made an assessment of the effect the VPS scheme has had on sentencing decisions. The VPS helps the sentencing judge to consider any harm which the offence has caused when determining the seriousness of any offence and the appropriate penalty to be imposed.

Probation

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what domestic violence training programmes are available for probation staff; and how many probation staff have undertaken domestic violence training in the last 12 months.

Andrew Selous: Prior to 1 June 2014 when the National Probation Service (NPS) was set up along with 21 community rehabilitation companies (CRCs), 35 independent Probation Trusts were responsible for commissioning specialist training such as domestic violence for probation staff. Since June 2014, a new National Probation Training team has been set up for NPS. Currently, the National Offender Management Service is commissioning a new domestic abuse package to reflect recent changes in practice and ensure a consistent national standard of training. In the interim, the seven NPS divisions are continuing to deliver their own local domestic violence training packages. Training is also available for probation officers to use a specific tool for assessing the risk of domestic abuse and to case manage offenders subject to domestic violence programmes. Before June 2014 there were 35 Probation Trusts, which have now been replaced by the NPS and the CRCs. Information is not available centrally on the number of staff in the former probation trusts who have undertaken domestic violence training in the last 12 months as this was held at a local level.